Bruins Breakdown Film Session: Oskar Steen goal vs Jets (1-22-22)

Welcome to the first Bruins Breakdown film session! My goal with these is to break the plays down beyond just the finishing sequence. Hockey is an intricate game and there are so many events happening all over the ice, it is important to look at them all to understand how plays are made.

For the first one I am going to take a look at Oskar Steen's first period tally against the Winnipeg Jets on January 22, 2022. If you have not seen it, here is the video:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/73d00e_7893705e2ed748188672bafe1fd23730/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

This goal sequence initially starts about 20 seconds before the goal is even scored. Taylor Hall chipped one from beyond the red line into the Jets corner. Josh Morrissey (#44 for the Jets, there will be a lot of talk about him during this article) gets into the corner for a retrieval and starts the puck up ice while both teams are completing a change of the forward lines.

As Morrissey starts up ice, the Bruins are in good position with Steen pressuring Morrissey and Coyle in position to jump on any pass to Copp (#9), who is opened up and skating backwards toward the board as an outlet

Roll the clip a little further and you can see the full picture. Steen is still pressuring Morrissey, Coyle is in good position for any pass to Copp, and DeBrusk is in position to defend a pass to both Jets players in front of the bench.

Morrissey makes a bad pass which DeBrusk picks off, allowing the Bruins to transition back up ice on offense.

Despite a less than perfect pass into Coyle's skates (causing him to fall over), DeBrusk follows his pass and is able to beat Morrissey to the spot and chip it in deep. Morrissey is caught in no mans land here and does a poor job impeding DeBrusk from the forecheck.

DeBrusk gets the puck into the corner and allows DeBrusk and Steen to go to work. DeBrusk's speed forces Dylan DeMelo (#2) into an awkward puck retrieval. He kind of gets stuck between wanting to rim it around or cut it back toward the corner. He ends up doing neither

This is an ugly retrieval by DeMelo and really bad positioning by the Jets. They have FOUR guys in the left third of the ice, three of whom are bunched very close together. DeMelo doesn't have much he can really do with this puck and Coyle/Steen are positioned well to defend whatever he plans to do with it. In the upper right background, Urho Vaakanainen is already getting ready to pinch and keep the puck in on the far side blue line.

DeMelo fumbles the puck after a DeBrusk stick check. Steen follows up putting pressure on him. DeBrusk stops on the puck and seals off the boards. DeMelo's only play is to rim it around, which Urho (top left) is already anticipating.

Textbook execution by the Bruins. Urho pinches and easily beats Blake Wheeler to the puck, enabling him to chip it back down to DeBrusk. Charlie McAvoy shades toward the middle of the blueline to support Urho incase his retrieval goes wrong. Coyle is the high man and goes right to the slot area, knowing he will need to provide DeBrusk with a target. Steen is off screen, but moves toward DeBrusk to give him an option behind the net.

At this time, the Jets are in okay position other than Josh Morrissey. He is standing there with his stick in the air, not really covering anyone or in a passing lane.The puck is going towards the slot, but Andrew Copp is seemingly right in Coyle's back pocket

This is the defensive breakdown. Copp loses Charlie Coyle completely. Morrissey is back in no mans land, not doing anything but screening Connor Hellebuyck. To Morrissey's credit, he sort of gets a stick on the Coyle shot even though it was fouled off. DeMelo gets caught puck watching and pays no attention to Steen, who does what goal scorers do and gets to the crease area.

The puck bounces around after the Coyle shot, and Steen is in perfect position to pounce. He is able to fire one five-hole on Hellebuyck, who is sliding right to left after the deflection.

And the game is tied! Really good stuff from the Bruins third line and Urho Vaakanainen. Not-so-good stuff from the Jets and Josh Morrissey. When the B's execute their systems they are able to overwhelm teams like this on the forecheck.

Thank you for reading! I hope to clean these up a bit going forward and will focus on important plays from each game.